Glitch's Story

Glitch

Screams ran out as she teared all those surrounding her to shreds, friend, foe, she didn't care, all that mattered was the way she gracefully destroyed anyone that stood before her. With a sigh, Glitch turned off the moniter she had fixed up recently. She had been looking forward to this game ever since she had discovered it while out looking for stuff to fix up and add to her collecion but the repetition of senseless violence had soon grown boring, still, it was something she could work on if she had nothing better to do.

"Cheese and whiskers," she said as she removed the disk for the console and placed it back amongst the others she had collected.

Suddenly she stopped moving, lost in thought. Something didn't feel right but what was it. Raising a hand to her face she soon found the answer. Her mask wasn't on. Frantically she began to search for it, to her it was like a security blanket and never felt safe without it. Not for the first time she cursed the fact that she needed to take it off to breathe while she slept. Finally she unearthed it, half hidden by her boots. Drawing it over her mouth she took a deep breath calming herself down as she pulled on her shoes. It was about time she went and joined the meeting though she didn't look forward to being stuck in a room full of people that couldn't understand half of what she was talking about.

"Why was I born into a world where I need other people so I can survive," she muttered to herself, exiting her darkened compartment.

She was only a quarter of the way to the first class cart when it struck, another bout of what she had been able to diagnose as Alice in Wonderland Syndrome. A wave of dizzyness swept over her, the ground seemed to far away for her body to be at a normal size and it seemed to be getting further and further away by the second.

"My head is going to hit the roof of the train any second now," she thought with alarm.

She raced to find an exit, she didn't want to be stuck like a sardine in a tin, if her body was going to grow like this then she might as well do it outside, at least then she'd have some options.Wrenching the door open she prepared to run out but it suddenly seemed so far away, like it was at the end of a long hall.

"How is that possible?" she exclaimed, "I just opened it."

She began to run towards it, desperately but time seemed to have slowed down, it was as if she was running underwater.

"Someone please help me," she whispered, tears running down her face, "I don't want to be stuck as a giant in a train."

After what seemed like an eternity she found herself outside. Collapsing to the ground she placed her head in her hands and closed her eyes, counting to ten. When she opened them again, everything was back to normal, she was the right size and time was running at a normal pace. She had to admit, she was a little embarassed and hoped that nobody had seen the display. She wiped the tears from her eyes as she picked herself up and began to brush dirt from her clothes.

"At least there were no mondo bad hallucinations this time," she reasoned, "I don't think I'd like to see those talking heads again."

It always baffeled her how the syndrome managed to effect her despite all of her knowledge of it, even though she knew it was just a distortian in her perception of reality she still seemed to get caught up in the haze. Then again, most cases were meant to disappear after childhood and the world wasn't exactly sane now. Hoping that the other Matryoshka's would pass off her red eyes as another late night she stepped into the first class compartment. It appeared that she bad been beaten there by Flick and Shi-shi as well as the leader who was standing near some girl she'd never seen before. Glitch stared at the muffins that Shi-shi was brandishing about and wondered if it was one of the girls more unusual creations. Unsure whether to trust the food or not she decided to forgo eating untill she could find the time to cook something herself, at least that way she knew it'd be edible.

Shi-Shi

Shi-Shi pulled the tinfoil on the muffins back; luckily, the foil seemed to have done its job of keeping the contents of what it covered all fresh and warm, as the little blonde’s culinary creations still seemed to be steaming despite being a few hours old. With a smile on her face, the girl balled the foil up with her right hand and threw it into one of the nearby trashcans, part of her just waiting for Flick to freak out about her having his missing hair clip. It was so fun getting him riled up . . . even if he did tend to live up to his nickname of Flick whenever she went and did this, Shi-Shi wasn’t scared of him, nope. If the world were still a sane place, and the little faerie herself were normal, she would indeed probably suffer from a well-deserved fear of him and not dare to mess with him. . . . But, the world had gone to hell in hand basket—no one was sane anymore~

Though, Shi-Shi had developed enough common sense in her tine of ‘insanity’ to know that Flick wasn’t one of the Matryoshka that wasn’t really necessary to fear. Of the whole bunch of them . . . either Sly or Wacko held that place in her head, of whom to fear most of her ‘family.’ No matter how sweet Sly acted, Shi-Shi was a ninja, a sneaky, nosy thing who lurked about in the shadows of places meant to be private, and came to be rather privy to knowledge best left secret after all~ Still, even if Sly and Wacko were something to fear, Shi-Shi actually held no fright of them in her little heart. Like the rest of the Matryoshka, they were part of the family, and they were people she loved and needed to treat with care, as the ‘mother’ she was.

Quietly, she looked at Glitch as she came on into the compartment herself, looked at the muffins and simply choose to disregard them, this caused Shi-Shi to shrug. Her loss~

But, that was when the girl’s duel colored eyes caught sight of something stirring on the floor of the train car, a person. Smile leaving Shi-Shi’s face, she craned her head over and looked upon this new person with a glint of wonderment in her eyes—it had been ages since last she could remember a new face appearing before the Matryoshka and herself. Face looking serious; sane, the little blonde just quietly observed the person as they moved, then she spotted something that made the mad grin return to her ashen face. Oh~ Shi-Shi spies with her little eyes . . . hair the color of magenta~ she thought, catching sight of the newcomer’s bright and long hair. Magenta; one of Shi-Shi’s most favorite colors. It was the hue of her midriff shirt, and the color in which her amazing black hoodie was accented with.

The girl was tiny, so small and petite~ And young, boy was she young. She even has Shi-Shi beat in looking like a kiddie, her face is still all cute and round with baby fat. Keeping her eyes upon the lass, Shi-Shi observed her looking about frantically, before she shoved herself back into the dimmest corner of the first class compartment. Silly girl seemed to be afraid. Good instincts, given who she’s with. Shi-Shi giggled at this thought. Even with the magenta colored hair piquing Shi-Shi’s interest, the blonde quickly lost her wonderment with her as she remained quiet, and stood to her feet, to her full and short height. If she wasn’t going to talk, then Shi-Shi was bored. . . .

Humming to herself, the little Matryoshka turned her gaze back to her muffins before she heard the door behind her slide on open, and in came the only Matryoshka member Shi-Shi herself was taller than, and one of the few members that she knew was a person to look upon with caution. He was barefoot, as usual, and looking/acting the part of being the innocent and cute member of the group. He looked around the room before eyeing the plate of muffins she was holding onto. A bit of a snide smile happened upon the blonde’s face at that—she didn’t fear Sly at all, even if she should have.
”Can I… Can I have one?” he asked her, turning his gaze to her expectantly.

To this Shi-Shi giggled just a little bit with a cute smile all her own. Insane or not, he should have known by now that anything that she cooked was always, always for all the Matryoshka, and not just herself. “Of course Sly can have one, Shi-Shi always makes food for us all and not just herself. Remember~? She doesn’t want anyone in her family starving!”[/b]

Just as she finished speaking though, Shi-Shi was suddenly knocked to the ground—she didn’t scream or shriek in shock though, because she knew it was coming eventually. It all had just depended when Flick, well, ‘flicked.’ There was a hand on her throat, squeezing it just enough to give a little bit of pressure, and to this the blonde opened her eyes up and cracked a smile, even laughed a bit. ”I believe you have something that’s mine~!” he half sang, a wicked and insane grin upon his face. And while most people would have been frightened by that look, it was something Shi-Shi was very accustomed to. After all, snatching Flick’s hair clips was a part of the routine she performed in order to make sure that she was still a part of the earthly realm, and to make sure her faerie self had not slipped off into another dimension.

Before she could even blink or realize what happened though, the hair clip was removed from her bangs and replaced by something, well . . . that was new. Realizing this, the smile vanished from Shi-Shi’s face as she just blinked in genuine surprise. Normally, Flick went on to tell her off and go on a tangent, not. . . . She was expecting to get more of a rise from him, and not for the hair clip to be replaced by something else. One of Shi-Shi’s gloved hands wandered up to her ponytailed bangs, and lightly clutched onto the ornaments attached to the hair bands as her eyes turned upward, a look of curiosity upon her features. Why is today different? she asked herself.

Shi-Shi still lay on the floor of the first class compartment, trying to look at the ornaments with no success before she heard Flick speak again, having ceased pinning her down as he had. ”It costs me money to buy you those things, y’know. Money.” It sort of sounded like he was chiding her, which made Shi-Shi pout—it wasn’t his place to chide her! No, it was her job to do that to the others as she was the mother of the group. . . ! Why was today different from normal? Ordinarily, Flick would have just taken back his hair clip, and she would have been left giggling as he freaked out at her for it, and she would just go off looking for something new to put her bangs up with. But he’d gone and bought her something to keep her bangs up with???

Still with a pout on her face, Shi-Shi realized that Flick was forcing her back to her feet with his free hand. She stood up, and forgot about the food she had prepared that morning, that Flick had apparently grabbed onto at some point in lunging at her. An irked expression upon her face, Shi-Shi felt her face go a little bit red as she found herself flustered by the fact that things had not gone as normal. During this whole event, it seemed Wacko had entered the quarters, but Shi-Shi had failed to notice this.

A whine came from her throat as she frowned, What was that all about? Why didn’t Flick just yell at Shi-Shi like he always does? she thought to herself. The girl’s brain sat upon these sorts of thoughts for the next moments and minutes, and she partly missed everything that was going on around her as she grumbled mentally about things not being normal.

"Judging by the fact that she's staying in her corner instead of walking towards the crazy people suggest she has some sort of grasp on the subject Right Twilla?” Shi-Shi looked up though, and was stirred from her thoughts as the Leader spoke to the newcomer. The quiet girl with the interesting magenta hair. So, her name was Twilla?

Even learning the girl’s name was not enough to prevent Shi-Shi’s mind from dwelling upon the fact that today had not been normal, as she wanted it to be. Flick’s little new hair band stunt with her was only being met with feelings of annoyance and questioning. A mischievous smile floated on over the girl’s features though, that glint of silliness happened over her face as well as she suddenly moved lithely across the dim compartment, doing so in a manner that would escape the attention of those not paying heed to her.

Shi-Shi was bored . . . and she felt like glomping someone. Her target? Well, for the moment, she deemed Flick the most appropriate target, given that he hadn’t made things go like they should have. With no warning, she clung onto the Elmo-hoodie wearing Matryoshka, laughing.

Glitch

Glitch's eyes narrowed in annoyance as Flick launched himself at Shi-shi, really, the pyromaniac could be a moron sometimes, all that fuss over a hair clip.

"Then again," she thought, "I'd probably do the same if someone tried to take or touch my mask. That or worse most likely."

Still, she couldn't help but feel disdain when looking at the othe Matryoshka's, all of them could be so stupid at times. Again she wondered why she endured their company, it certainly wasn't for the pleasure of it. It was as Shi-shi latched on to Flick that she reminded herself that she wouldn't get very far up the ladder of life unless she had some people around her to use as rungs should the ascent get tough.

"So the girls name is Twilla," she said to herself as the leader began speaking about the girl, "How very interesting...not."

Truthfully she couldn't care less about the girl but there was always the possibility that she might come it useful. It couldn't hurt to play nice, or at least, nice for her. Turning her attention from the girl to the other Matryoshka's her thoughts bean to wander, assessing each member on there abilities and usefulness, her gaze finally settled on Sly.

"Disgusting creature, does he actually think he's fooling anyone?" she wondered, "However, he would come in very usefull in a fight."

Still, she was sure that trusting him would be a mistake, although it would be easy to deal with him if he ever turned on her, the cute and innocent exterior held no charm for her, she would have no trouble cutting him down. Without warning her stomach growled causing her eyes to widen, it appeared that hunger had caught up with her. Briefly she looked at the muffins Shi-shi had brought with her, it would be so easy to just take one but no, she wouldn't give in and in any case, eating would require her to remover her mask and she couldn't bear the thought of doing that infront of so many people. She had to be strong.

"Way past cool," she muttered, bringing out the handheld device she had been working on for the past few days. She was sure it was another gaming device and it was almost completed.

Ignoring everyone around her she began to work on it once more and within minutes she had it working. Inserting a battery she switched it on and began to play. There were so many characters to choose from and all in a cartoon style. Selecting one of the female characters she set about the first stage of the game, it appeared that the objective was to run around fighting a huge army and causing as much mayhem as possible while you worked towards the enemy's commanding officer. Like the last game she had played, it was a little repetative but unlike the last one it had a heavy focus on tactics. She began to smile as the enemy was lured to an ambush she had previously set up, as soon as they were within range she would have achers fire on them and then set the place on fire, it was perfect and foolproof, she'd be garanteed to win, all that was required was a little patience. The enemy would be like lambs to the slaughter. As the enemies drew closer and closer her finger itched to initiate the attack. Finally they were in range and without delay she ordered the massacre to begin.

"Alphanumeric!" she exclaimed.

Her eyes widened as she realised she had spoken aloud, she never said anything around the other Matryoshka's unless she absolutely had to. No doubt they would all laugh at her or think she was weird, perhaps they'd even think she had gone completely insane beyond any hope of recovery and would then replace her. The thought frightened her, as much as she hated having to rely on them she hated the thought of them not relying on her even more. SIlently she cursed herself for letting the game draw her in. Picking it up she tried to crush it in one hand, annoyed that it wouldn't break.

"This is all you're fault," she thought, glaring at the game, "They'll replace me and it's all because of you."

Finally, giving up on trying to crush it she threw the device as hard as she could where it shattered against the wall next to Flick's head who was still caught in Shi-shi's embrace.

“Of course Sly can have one, Shi-Shi always makes food for us all and not just herself. Remember~? She doesn’t want anyone in her family starving!”

Oh, how he hated it when the stupid girl talked in third-person, only three years old, who had yet to learn the one syllable word "I", would ever do that. Sly sometimes wondered if she talked in such a tone naturally or if she did it on purpose. If she did the latter, however, Sly would only have to realise that he brought it on himself. Curse his puny body. It did give him a secure position in the family however; most wouldn't suspect a child. Anger flashed across his brown eyes before he returned to his previous self. His eyes rounded over and he gratefully placed a muffin in his trembling palms.

"Thank you, Shi-Shi!" Squealed Sly and nodded at her, a beaming smile placed on his face. He then dropped himself to one of the empty seats and quietly nibbled on one of the edges. Sly would wait until it had cooled down a bit, he wouldn't want his precious little tongue to be burnt off. Nobody would want that, would they? He watched each of the individuals in the room, they all had their own traits that set them apart as insane; whether it be extreme anti-social behaviour or sudden mood swings. He shook his head and pondered why he had ever agreed to join this group of... freaks. There were obvious reasons - such as a meat-shield whenever he needed it - but the only thing that dragged him back, Sly guessed, was Teddy, There was something about the Leader that made him actually likeable. If Sly rated the people in the room on the chance of him pummelling them to death, the boy would guess that Teddy would've been the hardest to even lay a hand on. Despite each of the Matryoshkas to be rather messed up, at least the Leader's movements were the slight of unpredictable.

He watched Shi-Shi and Flick wrestle with one another. Glitch fiddle with yet another of her gadgets. It was normal activity in the abandoned train. This was probably one of the reasons why he would sometimes go on a random killing spree, like the small episode earlier this morning; just to bring back the drop of sanity he still had managed to keep for how many years. In Illista, madness was infectious.

Despite living with the group for so long, Sly understood that there were still blank spaces where there was to be information he was supposed to know but obviously didn't. Their history, especially. How where they suppose to be a family when they barely shared details between them? The small boy mentally shook his head and continued to munch on his muffin. If he knew just a tiny bit more, maybe he could find their weak spots and crawl into the most darkest parts of their beings. Sly favoured blackmail, it was a nice manipulative method, but recently there had been no reason to do so.

Sly quickly gobbled up the rest of the muffin and found that there was very little else to do except wait for his stomach to digest the food. He decided to use this time to look at each person more closely instead. Shi-Shi and Flick were of no problem to him, they seemed naive and Sly felt no tension between him and them. It was obvious that they may had have some ideas about Sly's true image but they probably didn't feel the need to point this out.

His gaze then moved wearily to Glitch. If he didn't have to fear about his cover being blown, he would've have snorted. She was an odd Matryoshka, she seemed to prefer her electronics rather than other people. But Sly knew not to underestimate the quiet ones, they were usually the ones who judged the rest of us and categorized them in their own little sections. Maybe she silently criticized the others like himself. He frowned, wondering what she thought of him.

His attention then drifted to the door when it opened to reveal Wacko who bypassed Shi-Shi's muffins and then brought up a conversation with Teddy referring to the unfamiliar girl in the corner. This then caused Sly to focus on the girl as well, his eyebrows knitted together when the first thing that he noticed was the colour of her long locks.
Great, another person with weird-coloured hair.
But she looked shaken, so he decided to lay off for a while; even Sly understood that it was unreasonable to denounce a person he barely knew. Instead, a swarm of questions fluttered into his brain. This always happened when new arrivals came, no-one could mistake Sly's thirst for knowledge. He reminded himself to talk to the girl as well once Teddy was finished with her.

Glitch

Glitch glared at Wacko as he left the train. Honestly, who did he think he was, telling her of all people that computer screens were bad for your eyes. She came to the realisation that she was in a bad mood and wasn't surprised, the syndrome attack would have been enough to set her off anyway but now there were just too many people near her, considering the fact that two of them were Shi-shi and Flick, it was a surprise she didn't have a migraine.

"I swear, if I don't get to go soon then I'm going to explode," she thought to herself, tightening her mask.

She rolled her eyes in disbelief as Sly began to speak to the new girl, the display was so sickeningly sweet that she feared she would soon have cavities. The new girl couldn't seriously be buying the act but then again, she like most people, probably would. Without even waiting to see what Twilla actually thought of Sly, she concluded that the girl was a moron.

"How I would love for the world to not be full of idiots," she muttered to nobody in particular before turning her attention to Flick.

The redhead was playing with the leader's ponytail in a way that reminded her of a cat, the sight made her twinge. Standing up she walked over to the new girl, pushing Flick out of the way before standing next to the leader.

"Honestly Flick," she said, "What are you? Five?"

All this she said as if he wasn't even worth the effort to speak which in her opinion, he wasn't. She then turned her attention to Twilla, staring deep into her eyes, she was sure that she wasn't going to like her but then again, she didn't like anyone.

"Like Teddy and Sly have said, nobody will hurt you," she grumbled, "However, in my case this is only true if you stay out of my way."

Satisfied that the girl now knew where she stood, Glitch turned away and headed back to her seat. It was really too hot today to be wearing black but then again, her outfit was one of the few things that she felt comfortable in, the drawback was that unlike the others, she had nothing to unzip or take off if it got too warm for her, the only thing she could remove was her mask and that would never happen while she was around the other Matryoshka's. She had just about reached her seat when the walls began to flex in and out as if seen in a funhouse mirror. All the others seemed to be miles away, they looked so small, like dolls.

"Oh no, not again!" she groaned, dropping to her knees.

This time she was shrinking, she felt herself get smaller and smaller untill she was sure there was nothing left despite the fact that she knew it was impossible to shrink. Her eyes widened as figures seemed to detatch from the wall and shuffle towards her like zombies, she grew even more frightened when the pacman hairtie in Shi-shi's hair seemed to enlarge and come to life, floating towards her with it's big mouth gaping. As Pacman swallowed her she closed her eyes, opening them what could only have been a few minutes later but had felt like hours to find herself crouched by her seat, contorted into the smallest shape possible.

"Well that couldn't have happened at a worse time," she thought to herself.

She was sure now that they would replaced her seeing as they had found out about her secret flaw but then another thought popped into her mind, perhaps they had always known and had been planning to replace her with Twilla which was why the girl had been there in the first place. She was sure of it, this had to be the reason, now they would cast her out to fend for herself. She glared hatefully at Twilla, trying to portray exactly how she felt at that moment, wishing that looks could kill but much to her annoyance, the girl kept breathing.

"This is all your fault," thought Glitch as she stomped away to her compartment where she tore off her mask. Waiting for the news she knew was coming.